Sergio Garcia could probably learn a thing or two from Tiger Woods – like how to win a major, or how to stroke the egos of Philly fans. Woods successfully touted Philadelphia as a great city for sports, and he managed to do so without so much as one mention of Santa Claus.

You may recall we asked whether or not Philly fans at Merion would boo Garcia, because apparently we are savages for booing Santa. You know, like almost 50 years ago. Thankfully, Woods avoided such trite narratives about the people of this fair city by showing a little grace.

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Q. Philly is known as a passionate sports town. You played in New York and you had your event here. Is there a special passion when you play in the northeast?

TIGER WOODS: Absolutely. This is one of the great sporting towns in the country. They're passionate about all sports. We had our event at Aronimink [in 2011], and it was unbelievable. The fans were incredible. It was electric. And I think this week will be the same thing.

This is our U.S. Open and I don't think it's going to be ‑‑ obviously not as many people as it was at Bethpage, but I think it will be just as loud and just as electric, even though they're not going to be bracketing every hole on both sides, obviously you can't get there. But I'm sure we'll hear them.

Loud and passionate, with nary a sign of St. Nick – was that too much to ask? Woods has nothing but love for the Philly fans.

Correction: a previous version of this post attributed a quote about booing Santa Claus to Sergio Garcia. It was ESPN's Andy North. We apologize for the error.